Dabossajk

iTrader: (11)

Gents

I’m about ready to list my FD project car for sale – it’s been quite a ride of highs and lows since I bought it the 1993 Montego Blue Touring edition on Ebay one lazy Sunday afternoon in the spring of 2011. The wife came home to a congratulatory Ebay email, and I had some explaining to do. Luckily she let me get it though she’s never really understood… :-)

The Rx7 obsession started back in the late 1990s when I was gifted a well worn N/A FC (anyone else remember TeamFC3S and the mailing list?) Since then, owning an FD has been on the bucket list.

My dog and I drove 13+ hours to/from the border of WV and Ohio to pick it up from a sketchy trailer down a long dirt road. The interior reeked of weed and small woodland creatures when I picked it up. I spent months taking apart/throwing away - that’s when I knew it was going to be a long project.

The previous owner had deconstructed a once beautiful car into something rather hideous complete with fiberglass bumper, casters, air horns, and the ugliest wheels I had ever seen.

I’ve spent the past 3.5 years wrenching, sanding, swearing, sourcing parts, buying parts, fabbing parts, etc, etc. It’s been a challenge, a learning experience, with quite a few highs and lows.

Time has become precious now that I have two little ones (2 and 7 months) and I obviously can’t drive the kids around in this thing.

I’m posting this as I wanted to get your opinions and thoughts on the rather non-conventional build and to ask you all what you think the car is worth as I start the process of trying to sell it. Thanks in advance for your thoughts!

Details:

Car has 83,7xx miles w/o major accidents (RR fender had minor damage when I bought it).

My build goal was to a finish with a comfortable car that excelled on the track but could be driven daily if desired (lots of sound deadener and insulation). The Kirkey seats, removable steering wheel, and the removal of the sunroof hardware made it a perfect fit for me even with a helmet (and that is saying something since I’m 6’5 with a giraffe neck). If you think that you’re too tall for an FD, you’ll be pleasantly surprised when you get in.

I drove the car on the track for the first time two weeks ago (small event at NCCAR – North Carolina Center for Automotive Research – NCCAR | North Carolina Center for Automotive Research – NCCAR). I told myself that I had to do it at least once even though it’s pretty evident that I wont have time/money to consistently do track events any time in the near future.

The car handled really well (sticks in the turns and feels like it’s pivoting around the CG). I proved to myself and the to guys behind me that I’m not much of a driver by getting it sideways at about 70 mph. The classic turbo Rx7 overheating issues are nonexistent as far as I can tell – my temp gauge never moved above the 90C mark on the track and I haven’t seen much if any above 90C while in stop and go traffic on 90+ degree days. I don’t know for sure the effect of connecting up the A/C but my wager is that it wont change the operating temps much.

I tuned it myself with a datalogit (thanks Chuck Westbrook and Raymond Herchenroder, you guys were great). I have the boost set around 14 psi with a rich tune and some pretty conservative timing. Car is fast, but there’s much more to be had if you have the ***** to handle it. I have an Apexi 3 bar MAP sensor that I never installed.

I tried to upload a few photos to give you an idea of what it looks like now. Here's what I've done to it:

Exterior

Shaved rear antenna
Shaved rear wiper mount
Shaved rear washer sprayer
Sunroof panel bonded, interior sunroof hardware removed
All imperfections repaired, 3 layers of etching primer and block sanding done, dual stage paint innocent blue mica I the Spring of 2014
Custom front splitter (.125 aluminum plate) with custom attachment to bumper
Stock bumper with enlarged radiator and oil cooler openings
RE-A sleek light kit with curved, painted, clear-coated plexi glass covers (I set up a group buy for these), the retrofit source HID kit
Zenki tail lamp mod
Lizard Skin spray on sound deadener (underbody and interior surfaces)
PIAA 19 inch rims
Michelin Pilot Sport tires (3) 235/35/19 front,
Replacement BStone Potenza on the LF (valve stem failed, and I melted the sidewall on the freeway on the matching Michelin en route to my track day)
Vented carbon fiber hood (probably carbon over fiberglass – came from previous owner)
Honeycomb expanded aluminum mesh across all vents (including brakes)
Black high temp paint in engine bay


Interior

Replacement black carpet
Dynomat in doors and on rear deck
Lord structural foam inserted into door sill and the a-pillar on driver’s side
Autopower 4 point bolt in cage
NRG removable steering wheel w/horn
Kirkey seats with I/O port seat back braces
Custom insulated rubber seat mounts
Blue G-Force 5 pt harnesses
ProSport digital boost and A-F gauges
Full black interior (rear bins and separator are tan painted black and clear coated)
No radio
No speakers
No glove box
Rear located glass mat racing battery (passenger’s bin) with circuit breaker
Push-turn cut off switch (mounted in center of rear bins)
Max legal tint on windows
Exterior paint and clear coat on portions of steering wheel, shift ****, center console
Custom rear deck (over insulation)

Performance

Peter Farrell Supercars rebuilt motor (previous owner had it done around 65,000 miles– I’ve asked for specs, but haven’t received)
Great compression on each rotor face
Rebuilt transmission (no grinding) with Royal Purple (rebuilt by previous owner)
ACT high performance clutch and pressure plate (previous owner)
Custom V-mount with custom intercooler Koyo radiator, and custom AC condenser
Dual parallel flow 10 row oil coolers (bolted onto front rebar)
Stock primaries, 1300 cc secondary injectors
Unorthodox under drive pulleys
K&N cone filter
3 inch custom exhaust with Apexi downpipe and presilencer, rodded high flow cat, RB dual tip catback
Open wastegate routed through 1.5 inch pipe a glasspack separate from exhaust
2.75 inch intercooler piping (very short)
Garinkle torque brace
HKS twin power
Apexi PFC with datalogit
Apexi coil over springs/adjustable shocks


Reliability/tuning
Wiring harness removed, simplified, checked, re-wrapped
Removed and cleaned oil pan, checked motor mounts, reinstalled pan with longer bolts and sealant. Applied extra clear silicon around mounts as insurance against leakage
Coolant temp sensor linearization mod
Flushed brake system 6/2014
New rotors and stoptech pads (6/2014)
G2 red painted calipers (front)
Bosch wide band sensor
New water pump (no issue with the old one, just being proactive)
50/50 coolant H20 with water wetter
Oil catch can
Zip ties on all vacuum hoses
Pre-mix used in every tank
A/C was working when I took it all apart - getting new plumbing this week to go with my new condensor, new expansion valve, new dryer, and cleaned evaporator
Steam clean procedure done twice




Issues

Wipers are slow
Passenger’s window is slow going up
I don’t have any interior lights
Cloth/Foam headliner (not perfect – should/could be redone)
Removed sun visors and dyed them black (tan original interior) Should/could be recovered as the dye didn’t take evenly
HID bulbs are too yellow – should have gone with a higher Kelvin rating
Marker/turn lamp wiring suspect on the front (my wiring job isn’t real professional)
Center arm rest area locking tabs broken
Nalgene bottle overflow tank – should/could be upgraded
Plastic passenger compartment hood release lever broken

Dabossajk

iTrader: (11)

Just wanted to post a few more photos and to say thanks to:

Thanks to Aaron C. for answering 1,000s of questions
Thanks to Patrick O. for top notch body work
Thanks to Ashraf F. for vision early on in the project
David A. for sanding
Matt S. for moral support
My wife for handling the kids for days on end while was AWOL in the garage...

genzer

iTrader: (2)

Sounds like you've been having a blast. What turbo? :}

Car is lookin' reeeeall nice

4g63rotary

iTrader: (5)

That's a gorgeous FD friend! Looking at your list of updates and mods I would say the Issues you list are practically invisible. I say you should invest in more track time and put that single turbo to good use!

Once again beautiful 7!
W.

Dabossajk

iTrader: (11)

Thanks for the kind comments - it's an Rx6 turbo from the Apexi kit. Spools quickly - I get full boost around 4k rpms...

Dabossajk

iTrader: (11)

Bump! Asking 15,499 now.